Inhabitat's Week in Green: the Water Discus Hotel, magnetic LED bulbs and pig poo electricity
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
Man-made islands; indoor ski slopes; temporary ice hotels. We thought we had seen it all in Dubai, and then the Middle Eastern city went and outdid itself with the Water Discus Hotel, a hotel that will feature a series of sci-fi styled discs, one of which will be located 21 stories underwater. For those who prefer to stay above water, Antwerp will open one of the world's largest floating swimming pools this summer. Made from an old ferry boat, Badboot will be 120 meters long and it'll be part of a larger facility that can host as many as 600 people. And across the point in New York, the One World Trade Center skyscraper was just crowned the tallest building in NYC.
This week, we got pretty excited about LED lights, and we spilled some serious ink explaining how to switch your light bulbs to LEDs in preparation for the phase out of incandescent bulbs. If you're thinking about making the switch, you'll definitely want to give it a peek. And speaking of LEDs, this week we took note of a couple of different LED bike lights -- Glo-bar glowing handlebars and magnetic LED bulbs that turn on when they touch metal -- that will keep you riding in style.
It seems like every week we hear about a new technology that promises to advance the cause for electric vehicles, and this week was no different, as automakers from the United States and Germany announced that they will throw their weight behind a new technology that will recharge EVs in 15-20 minutes. Electric vehicles have been making some serious advances recently, but cars aren't the only type of vehicle to benefit from new technologies. We also drooled over the futuristic-yet-retro ZecOO electric motorcycle, which was unveiled this week. The drop-dead sexy bike has a top speed of 75 mph, a range between 55 and 86 miles, and a charging time of only four to six hours. But the electric vehicle that we're most excited to see is neither a car nor a motorcycle -- it's the Volta Volaré electric airplane. Using a system that's similar to the one found in the Chevy Volt, the four-seater runs on an electric motor for the first 300 miles, and then it switches over to a gasoline engine.
We also engaged in a bit of good ol' fashioned potty talk. The Australian firm CRC CARE announced that it can convert pig poo into electricity. Seriously. The company has developed "PooCareTM," a bioreactor that can be installed below ground at pig farms, and it's currently being tested in central China. Taking poo power a step further, the Mexican internet company Terra has started a campaign to bring new Wi-Fi services to local parks. The catch? WiFi will be administered in timed increments based upon the amount of dog poop collected and placed in designated receptacles.
